In 2009 20% of the office space in northwest Harris County was vacant As of that year more office space is being built; in 2010 northwest Harris will have twice the amount of office space that it had in 2009 the vacancy rate in the area near Farm to Market Road 1960 and Texas State Highway 249 in north Harris County was 53% in 2009, 2015 Texas Population Estimate Program, Locations in Houston are generally classified as either being inside or outside Interstate 610 known as the "610 Loop" or simply "The Loop" Inside the loop generally encompasses the central business district and has come to define an urban lifestyle and state of mind Elizabeth Long the author of the 2003 book Book Clubs: Women and the Uses of Reading in Everyday Life wrote that most of the upper middle classes in the 610 Loop live in the southwestern part of the inner city in the areas near Hermann Park the Houston Museum District Rice University and the Texas Medical Center while some portions of northern Houston and Eastern Houston have been gentrified and also have upper middle classes. Thunderstorms strike Texas often especially the eastern and northern portions of the state Tornado Alley covers the northern section of Texas the state experiences the most tornadoes in the United States an average of 139 a year These strike most frequently in North Texas and the Panhandle. Tornadoes in Texas generally occur in the months of April May and June. . President Woodrow Wilson opened the deep-water Port of Houston in 1914 seven years after digging began by 1930 Houston had become Texas' most populous city and Harris County the most populous county in 1940 the U.S Census Bureau reported Houston's population as 77.5% white and 22.4% black, Music Marker on the Harris County Annex 2 Building in Downtown Houston indicating the site where Sam Houston lived from 1837 to 1838, Designed by architect Joseph Finger (who also designed Houston's City Hall) the Houston Municipal Airport Terminal was constructed in 1940 to meet Houston's growing role as a center for air commerce in the 1930s the terminal building is an example of classic art deco airport architecture from the 1940s the terminal served as the primary commercial air terminal for Houston until 1954 the terminal located at William P Hobby Airport houses the 1940 Air Terminal Museum which currently exhibits several collections focusing on Houston's aviation history. In 2004 Houston unveiled the first Mahatma Gandhi statue in the state of Texas at Hermann Park Houston's Indian American Community were cheerful after 10 years in 2010 when the Hillcroft and Harwin area were renamed Mahatma Gandhi District in honor of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as that area is the center of Indian commerce. Thousands of enslaved African-Americans lived near the city before the Civil War Many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs in 1860 forty-nine percent of the city's population was enslaved Frost Town a nearby settlement south of the Buffalo Bayou was swallowed by Houston.[citation needed].
Members of the oil and gas industry are representatives of most of the boards of Houston's arts bodies charities and museums the energy companies spent funds in order to make Houston a more attractive community for their employees to live in, On May 30 1922 George Hermann a millionaire donated land to the city that later became the Hermann Park September of the same year saw the start of the Houston Zoo the zoo was started when Houston schoolchildren bought two ostriches the zoo was later moved from Sam Houston Park to Hermann Park September 26 saw the first international-bound ship in the port During the Roaring Twenties more specifically 1927 the state highway to Houston was built Bus and truck operations also fell into swing Houston Junior College opened its doors that same year which later became the University of Houston August 1929 saw the entry of the first Sears into Houston Then Black Tuesday threw a devastating blow to the economy of the entire United States Houston's growth was much smaller but the city still grew Mexican Americans no longer found it as easy to obtain jobs yet several were successful by catering to the Anglo market in the city, The table below consists of averages for August (generally the warmest month) and January (generally the coldest) in selected cities in various regions of the state El Paso and Amarillo are exceptions with July and December respectively being the warmest and coldest months respectively but with August and January only being narrowly different. . .
Elle Emme Di Luigi Malinverno & C. Sas